Reversible turbine-engine



J. SHOWALTERBAUGH.

REVERSIBLE TURBINE ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED Nov.27, I920.

1,384, 976,, Patented July 19, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I. 420 if g. 1

3 1 7 I W W f @lttouma Pd J. SHOWALTERBAUGH.

REVERSIBLE TURBINE ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 27, 1920- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Jose

Patented July 19 OFFlQE,

JOSEPH SHOWALTERBAUGE, 0F GARY, INDIANA.

REVERSIBLE TURBINE-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 19, 1921.

Application filed November 27, 1920. Serial No. l26,740.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that Josnrrr SHOWALTER- BAUGH, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Gary, in the county of Lake and State of Indiana,has invented certain new and useful Improvements in Reversible Turbine-Engines, of which the following is a specification, reference being hadtherein to the accompanying drawing.

The invention relates to reversible turbine engines, and has for itsobject to provide a device of this character comprising a casing havingremovable heads, in which heads a shaft is rotatably mounted andprovided with a plurality of turbine wheels, said turbine wheels beingdriven by projected steam, which is projected into pockets on theturbine wheels, said steam being projected from substantiallytangentially disposed nozzles; also to mount said nozzles on rockableshafts, rockably mounted in bearings of the detachable heads, saidshafts being provided with steam passages in communication with a steammanifold, carried by one of the detachable heads, the other ends of saidrockable shafts being provided with gears meshing with a gear ringrotatably mounted in one of the detachable heads and rotated by a wormfor rotating the gear ring and reversing the tangential positions of thesteam projecting nozzle. I V

A further object is to provide the rockable nozzle shafts with spacednozzles, between which nozzles the turbine wheels are disposed, saidturbine wheels being provided with a plurality of pockets on the sidesthereof and adjacent their peripheries and in registration with thenozzles.

A further object is to construct the detachable heads and the casing sothat the interior of the engine will be readily accessible and theturbine wheels may be easily and quickly removed without disassemblingthe entire engine.

A further object is to form the side pockets in the turbine wheels, bycutting transversely disposed slots after a circumferential groove hasbeen cut in the periphery of the Wheel, then placing in thecircumferential groove an annular member for dividing the transverselydisposed slots into pockets, said pockets being closed at their outerends by an annular band which may be shrunk or otherwise. secured on theperiphery of the wheel.

lVith the above and other ob ects in view the invention resides in thecombination and arrangements of parts as hereinafter set forth, shown inthe drawings, described and claimed, it being understood that changes inthe precise embodiment of the invention may be made within the scope ofwhat is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the drawings Figure l is a side elevation of the intake side of theengine.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. dis a side elevation of the nozzle controlling side of the engine,parts being broken away to better show the structure.

Fig-let is a vertical sectional view t ken i on line 4&4: of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail perspective view of the portion of one ofthe turbine wheels, showing the pocket construction.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates a casing of theengine which comprlses the cylindrical body portion 2 which is providedwith outwardly'extending annular flanges 3 at its ends. Secured to theends of the body portion 2 of the casing" by bolts 4: is an intakemanifold head 5 and a removable head 6. Head 5 is provided with anannulai maiiifold 7 having removable plugs 8 at spaced points thereonand by the removal of which access may be. had

to the interior of the manifold,-and for placing in position andremoving the rockable nozzle shafts 9, which have one of their endsrockably mounted in bearings 10 of the head 5, and held in said bearingsby nuts 11 hav-' ing interposed between the same and the head, springwashers 12. 'Nozzle shafts 9 extend through bearings 13 in an annularflange 14 carried by the inner periphery of the cylindrical body portion2 of the casing and are provided with reduced portions rockably mountedin bearings 15 of the removable head 6 and are held against axial.movement therein by means of nuts 1.6 having interposed between the sameand the head spring washers 17. Spring washers allow a slight axialmovement of the rockable shafts 9, the purpose of which will presentlyappear. Secured to the ends 18 of the rockable shafts 9 are gears19,,which gears are concentrically disposed and mesh with the gear teeth20iof a rotatable gear ring 21. Gear ring 21 is rotatably mountedcarried by the head 6 and is provided with an annular flange 23 whichoverlies the outer side of the flanged extension 22, which flangedextension prevents axial movement of the gearring 21 inwardly andmaintains the gears 19 in mesh with the gear teeth 20.

7 Axial movement of the gear ring 21 out turesinthe removable head sandthe fiange 3, at the end of thevcylindrical casing 2. Gearing 21adjacent its outer side is provided with gear teeth 26, which gear teethmesh with a worm 27 rotatably mounted in bearings of the gear casingringadjacent the lower side thereof. Worm 27 is carried by a shaft 28 whichmay be operated in any suitable manner for rotating the gear ring 21.WhenQthe gearring 21 is rotated, it will be seen that through the gears19, the rockable shafts 9 will be simultaneously rocked. v v

Rockable shafts 9 are provided with chambers 29, one end of whichchambers is in communication with the steam manifold 7 so that steamwhich enters the manifold 7 through steam supply pipes 30, will enterthe chambers 9. Rotatably mounted in bearings.

31of thehead 6 and bearings 32 of the head 5 is a shaft 33-, on whichshaft turbine wheels 7 34 are secured. Bearings 31 and 32 and the shaft33 areso constructed that the heads 5 and 6 may be removed after thenuts 11 and spring washers 12 have beenremoved, therei b Aallowingacoess to either s'ideof the engine without disassembling theentire engine;

. Turbine wheels .32 have their outer edges disposed between steamprojecting nozzles 35 carried by the rockable shafts 9 and are providedwith side pockets 36 and into which pockets the nozzles projectthesteain thereby causing the turbine wheels 34 to rotate.

By. referring to Fig. 4 it willbe seen that when the turbine wheels'3 1are revolving in ing'the nozzles 35 to assume a substantially 5 thedirection of the arrow'a that the nozzles 50.

35 are. substantially tangentially disposed. It will also be seenthatwhen it, is desired to reverse the direction'of rotationof the turbinewheels 34, that it will only" be necessary to'revolve the shaft 28 whichwill 'cause the rotation of the gear ring 21 with which gear ring thepinions 19 mesh. This action will cause the pinions 19 and the rockableshafts 9 to rotate partially, thereby caustangen-tial position oppositeto thatshown Fig. ,4: inirelation to-the pockets 36} of the turbinewheels, which will cause a reverse rotation of the turbine engine.

The pockets 3.6 are formed by first forming a circumferential channel inthe periphery of hes im the turbine wheels, then slotting the periphcryof the wheel transversely, after which an annular strip 37 is placed inthe circumferential channel of the wheel. Annular apertures in theremovable heads 5 and 6 so that none of the rockable shafts 9 willinterfere with the removal of thehead" 5 or 6 which is being removed,thatis, after the nu't'll and spring washer 12, or the nut 16 or springwasher '1: havebeen removed.

After ahead has been removed and it is desired to remove one of theturbme wheels 34, the shafts 9' arerocked until the nozzles 35 arepositioned beyond the periphery of the turbine wheel'desired to beremoved, at which time the turbine wheel can be moved outwardly and.replaced by another, or repaired and replaced.

From the above it will be seen that a turbine engine is provided, which.may be easily and quickly reversed, and one which is simple inconstruction, the parts easily removed from the interior thereof without.disas- V sembling the machine and one which is positive in itsoperation. 7 I

One end of the shaft 33 is provided with a pulley 39, to which pulleymachinery may be belted if so desired, for instancea dy- 'n'amo.

Steam is exhausted from thefcas'ing '1 through the exhaust pipes 40,which may lead to any suitable placedesired.

The invention having been set forth what is claimed as new and usefulis 1. A turbine engine comprising a casing having rotatably mountedtherein a turbine 7 wheel having pockets in its side, a rockable shaftrockably mounted in the casing adj acent the periphery ofth-eturbine'wheel and provided with a steamsupply chamber, a steamprojecting nozzle carried by said rockable shaft and disposedsubstantially tangential to the pockets and means forrocking theshaftfor reversing the position of the nozzle when it is desired toreverse the direction of rotation of the turbine wheel.

2. The combination with a turbine engine comprising a ca'sing'havingrotatably mounted therein a turbine witlrp ockets-in itssides adjacentits periphery, of'a rockable chamb-ered shaft rockable in the casing andadjacent the i'eriphery of the wheel; spaced steam projectingnozzles*carrie'd by the shaft and disposed on each side of the wheel andsubstantially tangential in relation to the pockets and means forrocking the shaft for reversing the tangential position of the nozzles.

3. The combination with a turbine engine comprising a casing havingrotatably mounted therein a turbine wheel with pockets in its sidesadjacent its periphery, of a rockable shaft having a steam supplyingchamher, said shaft being disposed adjacent the periphery of the turbinewheel and provided with spaced nozzles disposed to each side of thewheel and tangentially disposed in relation to the wheel pockets, andmeans for reversing the tangential position of the nozzles by rockingthe shaft when it is desired to reverse the direction of rotation of theturbine wheel.

4:. The combination with a turbine engine comprising a casing havingrotatably mounted therein a plurality of turbine wheels with pockets intheir sides adjacent their peripheries, of a plurality of rockableshafts rockably mounted in the casing and having steam supplyingchambers therein, one end of said chambers being in communication with asteam manifold, spaced nozzles carried by the rockable shafts anddisposed on each side of the turbine wheels and substantiallytangentially disposed in relation to the pockets, said nozzles being incommunication with the chambers of the rockable shafts, and means forsimultaneously reversing the tangential positions of the nozzles forreversing the direction of rotation of the turbine wheels.

5. The combination with a turbine engine manifold, nozzles carried bysaid rockable shafts and disposed to project steam tangentially into thepockets of the wheels, gears carried by one end of said shafts, saidgears meshing with a gear ring and means for rotating said gear ring forsimultaneously reversing the positions of the nozzles.

6. A turbine engine comprising a casing having removable heads, a shaftmounted in bearings of said heads and provided with turbine wheelshaving pockets in their sides adjacent their peripheries, a pluraltiy ofrockable shafts having steam chambers therein, said shafts beingrockably mounted in bearings of the removable heads, a steam supplymanifold carried by one of the heads and in communication with thechambers of the rockable shafts, a gear ring rotatably mounted in one ofthe removable heads and meshing with gears carried by the rockableshafts, nozzles carried by the rockable shafts and tangentially disposedin relation to the wheel pockets and means for rocking the gear ring forsimultaneously reversing the position of the nozzle.

7. The combination with a turbine wheel of a turbine engine, said wheelhaving pockets on its sides, of projecting nozzles carried by a rockableshaft having a steam supply chamber for said nozzles, and means forrocking the rockable shaft for reversing the position of the nozzles.

8. The combination with a turbine wheel having pockets in its side, of aprojecting nozzle carried by a rockable shaft having a steam supplychamber, and means for reversing the position of the nozzle in relationto the pockets of the wheel when it is desired to reverse the directionof rotation of the wheel.

9. The combination with a turbine wheel, of a turbine engine havingpockets in its sides, of steam projecting nozzles carried by rockableshafts having steam supply chambers therein, of means for simultaneouslyreversing the positions of the nozzles for reversing the direction ofrotation of the turbine wheel.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

JOSEPH SHOWALTERBAUGH.

